He's here! Meet Liverpool's Kylian Mbappe with 89-goals this season

His combination of speed, composure, and end product set him apart from even the brightest young talents of his generation, marking him as a once-in-a-generation footballer from the very start.

For a brief period in the 1990s, Liverpool were exceptional at producing elite forwards from their academy system.

Within just a few years, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen emerged from the Kirkby setup and made an immediate, explosive impact on the first team. Both players didn’t just break through - they dominated. Fowler’s natural goalscoring instincts and Owen’s electric pace and composure in front of goal turned them into two of the most iconic attacking talents in English football history, and two of the most celebrated homegrown players in Liverpool’s modern era.

However, they remain the exception rather than the rule.

Since that golden period, Liverpool have struggled to replicate the production line of elite strikers from their academy. Several promising forwards have come close to following in their footsteps. Adam Morgan showed early potential, while Krisztian Nemeth, Jerome Sinclair, and Rhian Brewster all impressed heavily at youth level and carried high expectations. Yet none were able to fully translate that academy dominance into sustained success in the senior team.

As a result, what has often been described as a “striker academy curse” has lingered over Kirkby for decades, with Liverpool relying more on external signings than homegrown centre-forwards.

That narrative, however, may finally be shifting again. A new wave of attacking talent is beginning to emerge, with prospects such as Josh Sonni-Lambie and Vincent Joseph generating quiet optimism within the club’s youth ranks.

But the standout name, the one attracting the most attention, is Harrison O’Brien.

Seen as the most exciting attacking prospect in the system right now, he represents the clearest hope that Liverpool’s academy could once again produce a truly elite forward capable of stepping into the first-team spotlight.

He is attracting a lot of attention lately for Liverpool's academy. He scored a hat-trick in the U15 Merseyside Cup against Ferencvaros earlier this season and he just scored another hat-trick in the final of the U15 Premier League Cup to help Liverpool's U15 side win the tournament.

If that wasn't enough, he's also scored a double hat-trick this season.

He netted six goals in Liverpool's U15 side's 7-1 victory over Stoke City.

In total he has 89 goal contributions, having scored 64 goals and registered 24 assists this season. Those are remarkable numbers and it's seen him compared to Erling Haaland. But he could easily be likened to Mbappe as well - given the Frenchman was equally as dominant at the same age.

What's impressive is that O'Brien's goals are not all the same. He's got a nice range, capable of scoring from long distance and from short distances. He's quick, powerful and deadly in front of goal in and around the box. He doesn't rely on one technique in many ways he is already quite complete.

On top of that he is an industrious forward who can also play on the wing and works really hard.

He's still very young but he's on the cusp of making his debut for the U18s at academy level and very soon he will be coming to the first-team, too.

In the process, he could become the Reds' very own teenage superstar - just as Mbappe once was Monaco's.